The Meeting Job
Setup: The runners are hired to assist Stark in guarding a mysterious personage as he takes care of business around Seattle. They are being paid extremely well (more then 4 times the going rate for a bodyguard) on the understanding that there will be dire consequences for failure and their protectee's privacy and identify must be absolutely protected, even from them. The Meeting Through Sully the runners met through Stark at a Cigar Bar, the Bronx Cheer. Stark laid out the job for them making it very clear that while he didn't want to be a hard case this job had personal signifigance for him. They are to serve as extra eyes and ears in the protection of his client, respect his clients privacy, obey his and his clients directives, and ensure Stark and most importantly the clients survival. It was also made clear to them that while the client understood they would not be taking stupid risks and would listen to sound tactical reasoning he wasn't going to sit in a safehouse for the duration of the job. He had things he wanted to do both personally and professionally. Stark was very impressed during the negotiations and agreed to raise his initial offer from 2k to 3.2k per runner per day for up to 7 days. Additionally the team can keep the vehicle given to them for use during the run. The Job The first part of the job will involve meeting up with an ID forger known as Vole who has a kiosk Pictures for the World in Grand Central Station. The runners are issued Day Passes to get them on to the island and into grand central without major hassles. Session 1 The team met with Vole to get their fake ID's and other credentials. They were non-plussed to find that Vole was still owed 10 grand for the work he had done and wouldn't release the credentials to them unless paid in full. While some argued for just intimidating Vole into giving them the contacts needed to do the work cooler heads tried to negotiate with Vole. In doing so they found he had a problem with the local security section chief. Quite literally snagging the chief for an impromptu conversation in a store front the team convinced the security head that they were NYPDinc undercover and that Vole was an important informant in an ongoing case thereby ending his troubles. Vole also sold the runners some additional modificatiosn for their gear and vehicles including spoof chips, grid guide overrrides and grid guide priority access codes. On getting their rides from the hotel the teams rigger found the cars had trackign devices attached to them, and the rooms had bugs palced in them. All of these were removed to the best of the teams knowledge. Later that night the team went to the Terminal to pick up their principal. Desmond as he is being called arrived via unmarked military combat craft and greeted Stark warmly while bieng cordial to the rest of the team. Upon leaving the terminal there was a backup at the checkpoint as there was both a street protest going on and more thorough then usual check of vehicles. The team red the crowd correctly and deduced they wouldn't stay still while fully stocked delivery trucks drove through their midst for long. A riot was liable to break out, which while the team was likely armed enough to deal with it could lead to complications for their emplyoyer. Making a quick decision the team elected to speak with officers at the checkpoint and passed over a bribe allowing them to be processed through more quickly Meeting 1 Agent of the Dragon: The next day Desmonds first meeting was a noon chess game with Sven Olson an agent of Lofwyr. Desmond later expressed dismay to Stark as Lofwyr seemed uninterested in his proposal whatever that was when Desmon had considered him to be a lock. After the meeting Desmond went shoping mostly hitting up high end Outdoor and Hunting supply stores for some high quality survival gear. During this time the team deduced they were being followed by SK agents, they disabled or lost all tails they were aware of. Meeting 2 Agents of the Triads: The evening meeting was with representatives of one of the Triad factions although no one on the team picked up ont he particular subtleties of the meet. During the meeting one of the Triad members became violently ill and rushed off to the restroom, but nothing ever seemed to come of it. Desptire the roughness of this matter the Triads seemed warmly disposed to Desmonds venture. After the meeting at the Sushi joint hosted by the triad (despite the cross cultural implications) Desmond desperately wanted a burger. He elected to taked the team out to one of the better burger joints in Manhattan and while initially nonplussed by the buffalo burger foudn the ostrich to be pretty tasty although not something he'd want to eat every day. Upon returning to the rooms the team found them to be rebugged. They elected to leave the team mage behidn with one of her guardian spirits as their first meeting of the next day was with Aztechnology who the team mage has had rough interactions with in the past. During the meeting a desk clerk entered the room despite the do not disturb sign being placed. Mage and spirit subdued him handily and waited for the others to return. The meeting with the Aztechnology rep went very well and the Aztlan rep pledged the companies full support behind Desmond's quest. Something that made some of the veteran players very nervous but even more in the camp of "We don't want to know what he's doing, it can't be good news." Upon return to the hotel the team set to interrogating the Hotel Clerk through a mix of violence tand threats he finally intimated that he was working for the mob and as long as the team let him go everyone could forget the whole thing and save a whole lot of problems. The team was pointedly telling him how no body meant no problems when hotel security showed up. The face went to the door and stalled for time at which point the clerk yelled out that he was being tortured causing hotel security to use their override to burst into the room. The team somewhat tersely optioned out that they'd caught the man bugging their room. Security ordered them up against the wall until they could get the whole thing sorted out. Non compliance from one of the trolls led to largely in effective stick n shock shots. The troll made his composure test to avoid his combat monster problems and complied allowing the situation to de-escalate. After some conversation with hotel security the team elected to allow security to press charges against the clerk using the evidence they found. In the process they gained Ray Z as a contact as he now owes them a solid. The hotel has agreed to refund the cost of their stay, not that the team is likely to see any of that money. Session 2 Session 2 started with a brief recap of the situation as it stood. The team departed for their next meeting taking place at a heavily warded local comic book shop. Once inside the shop a business suited Japanese girl appeared greeting Desmond in Japanese which he responded to in Russian. Desmond and Buttercup discussed matters privately before Buttercup reluctantly pledged to aid him in his endeavor. After driving uneventfully back to the hotel the team was ambushed in the causeway between the parking garage and the hotel. A bomb blew the glass roof of the causeway downward showering them with fragments while another one blew out the roof facing side exposing them to sniper fire. While the runners were collecting their wits a modified utility drone zipped down on a cable from the above window washing platform and attempted to grab Desmon only to be tackled by Monster. The opposition attempted to get compliance from the runners by bringing heavy weapons to bear and proving their point with gel packed sniper shots. The runners returned fire with live ammo wounding their target and shooting one of the cables supporting the window washing platform bringing it crashing to the ground and preventing the oppositions manner of escape.. The opposition mage made his presence known firing a stun ball that disabled all still in the causeway area except the famori troll and the rigger who was already headed for cover. Bloodied but unbowed the famori managed to kill the remaining meat present opponent and the sniper after taking one last attempt to kill him, and in the process knocking him into overflow, disengaged along with the opposition rigger. The next day Stark was very displeased at the situation he didn't berate the team reasoning that some of the fault was his own but he took some more direct handling of the protection detail. He also directed the team to locate a contact called Peaceman at the terminal to secure lodging with the Neo-@'s. With one of their members lodged with the hospital the team did their best to progress. Fortunately their first meeting that day was off the island at the Clinton Federal Administrative building in Harlem. It was clear that the building had been co-opted for something more then office drone work as security onsite was being handled by the UCAS Secret Service. While there Desmond met privately with former General/President Angela Colton presumably acting on behalf of the UCAS government. The runners were not privy to the discussion or it's outcome. The runners were advised that their next meeting would be in the late evening at the Opera house so until that time they headed into the terminal for the sanctuary the Neo-@'s offered. When preparign to exit the terminal it became clear that SK forces were overtly deployed waiting to get them coming out of the terminal. After a hasty confrence they requested the Neo-@'s rush the barricades as a diversion while the rest attempted to sneak out amongst the crowds. Lilly as well as the teams rigger were spotted in the crowd leaving the Terminal and had to dodge SK patrol cars on foot. Judicious use of technomancer powers and abilities sent the oncoming vehicles crashing into bystanders which started a full on riot allowing the two to flee on foot. Torkian was similarly spotted moving down the line and fled into the subway to avoid compromising the group. While in the subway he was arrested at gunpount, including pop down security turrents and brought into an interrogation room where he was interviewed by Sven and pressed on who he was working for. Though no major items of co-ercion were brought into play Sven seemed impressed enough by Torkian's maintaining that he was hired by Mr. Johnson to protect Mr. Johnson that he was willing to adhered to the spirit of The Game and order Torkian cut loose after a few hours as they had no concrete charges to hold him on and no reason to hold personal animosity towards him. The remainder of the party including their charges made it to the Opera house and headed up to their meeting with Damien Knight. Before even sitting down with Mr. Knight Desmond asked him if he was aware his companion was a bug spirit. Knight responded that yes he did know. Desmon thanked him for his time and promptly left. Business completed in the city Desmond whiped up a powerfull enough illusion spell to get the team back to the SK cordon and to the shore line. He was picked up there by a NAN warship and whisked away and the runners got paid. GM's Notes This was a chance to set some plot seeds down for use later setting story hooks that the runners can grow into once they are more powerful to properly involve themselves. Desmond is a spellcaster of some power in the sixth world and though he strictly speaking did not need the teams help to do his work using his own prowess might have tipped his hand. I didn't anticipate the single mage would knock the players for such a a loop. But such is magic in the sixth world. Compensation The team has been promised 22400 for up to 7 days of work of which the job is only expected to take about 5. They have also been given a expense account of 30000 nuyen any of the remainder is theirs to keep. Finally they will be allowed to keep any vehicles or gear used for the run 8 karma Speacialized Gear The team has been provided with two BMW Debonairs for their use during the mission. Additionally a fake ID package will be provided. Category:Stand Alone Jobs Category:Jobs